Frank Fowler

Prosecutors and police agencies across central New York are trying a new strategy as they continue to fight the rising use of synthetic marijuana. Not since the bath salts craze of 2012 have local police and emergency personnel come across so many agitated individuals high on synthetic drugs.

Some of the hand-me-down gear the Syracuse police force has received from the Pentagon is harmless - and in fact pretty useful: First aid kits, 40 pairs of long johns, 50 pairs of winter boots, even electrical tape and bungee cords.

Research shows a connection between early childhood education and crime. Central New York boosters of universal pre-kindergarten say that should be an important consideration when it comes to funding quality programs.

More police cameras are heading to crime-ridden Syracuse neighborhoods, spreading into more areas on the city’s Northside.

Patricia Simmons is pastor of a church in the Washington Square neighborhood of Syracuse. She’s happy the crime-deterring cameras are coming.

"Our church is on the corner of Park and Turtle,” Simmons said. “Outside our door we see prostitution, we see drug activities happen. If we have a big event, the folks come out to solicit and I think the cameras would also help to alleviate some of that.”

Several local politicians, including Rep. Dan Maffei (D-Syracuse) and New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman appeared at city hall in downtown Syracuse to throw their support behind the federal Smartphone Theft Prevention Act.

The act would require smartphone makers to install a “kill switch” on their devices that would allow customers to delete data and deactivate their phone remotely.

Schneiderman says the major manufactures have the technology to do this but are choosing not to.

Syracuse-area advocates of universal pre-kindergarten want lawmakers to include it in the state budget expected to be approved in Albany in the next ten days. Supporters crystallized their argument for pre-K at a news conference at Delaware School on Syracuse’s west side Thursday.

The call to include universal pre-K in the state budget came from business leaders, like Centerstate CEO president Rob Simpson

It will be easier for Syracuse Police to deal with animal emergencies from now on, after a central New York animal cruelty group donated 25 first response kits the the police department.

Syracuse Police Chief Frank Fowler says cops are often the first to come across an injured animal.

"We are the first to respond to a number of calls for police services, and we take all of them very serious," Fowler said. "And ranking up there with injury and harm to human beings, we take injury and harm to our animals very serious.”

Syracuse police have cracked an almost 30-year-old murder case using a combination of high tech DNA and intensive police work. The arrest of a Georgia man who had long been a suspect in the investigation of the death of his estranged wife, is the latest success in the Syracuse Police Department’s cold case unit.

Authorities say Ronald Meadow will be arraigned on second-degree murder charges in Syracuse later this month, in connection with the death of his estranged wife, Colleen Meadow, who was found strangled to death in her northside apartment in March 1985.

Public officials, current and retired police officers and firefighters, and citizens gathered at Forman Park in downtown Syracuse this morning to commemorate the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner, Onondaga County Executive Joanie Mahoney, Syracuse Police Chief Frank Fowler, Syracuse Fire Chief Paul Linnertz lit candles and stood in front of the police memorial. Seventeen minutes of silence was observed representing the time between the first and second planes hitting the twin towers of the World Trade Centers.

It was a day of remembrance today in Syracuse at the newly renovated Forman Park. Mayor Stephanie Miner, Syracuse Police Chief Frank Fowler, and Onondaga County Sheriff Kevin Walsh were all on hand to honor members of the police force that have fallen in the line of duty.

The Syracuse Police Department has changed some policies regarding allegations of sex abuse that come into the department, in the wake of the Bernie Fine investigation. Fine is the former assistant S-U Basketball coach who is accused of sexually molesting three young men, at different times since 1990 . Police Chief Frank Fowler says an initial allegation came into the department in 2002, from Bobby Davis, a former Ballboy with the team. Fowler says in a brief conversation, Davis told a detective he'd been molested in 1990 at Fine's home.

Earlier story: Syracuse police, along with the Onondaga County District Attorney, the U.S. Attorney and the U.S. Secret Service continue to investigate sexual abuse allegations against former Syracuse University assistant basketball coach Bernie Fine.